An idiot's tech blog

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25/05/15 Megger MFT1552 selector switch repairMost people won't know what the hell a Megger 1552 is, let alone be interested in how to repair one.

03/08/14 The Bluetooth Ghetto BlasterHello break dancer's boombox from 1981, may I introduce you to streaming music?

03/08/14 What the??No updates to this site for over a year and a half? What gives?? Well, I finally binned off the world of I.T. in early 2013 and now have a new career and a new business doing something completely different. It's been hard work, but worth it. I no longer have to keep up with a depressingly poor array of popular touch screen crap, nor do I have to contend with different software/portal providers knocking out incompatible ways for people to simply create documents and share media. With the old back-end to this site creakingly out of date, I had to make a decision on whether to kill it or put in the time to drag it into 2014. Eventually I decided that it would be a shame to lose eleven years of articles even though most of it is now technologically irrelevant. So here we are with a new Joomla install, a shit template that looks iffy even after hours of tweaking and, now that some spare time is finally returning, some new articles perhaps. Let's see how things go shall we?17/01/13 Asus Nexus 7 dislodged battery fixThat new hi-tech Nexus 7 not powering up huh? It seems those crazy Taiwanese types left a basic design flaw in the thing for both your amusement and entertainment. Fortunately it's easily fixed with the aid of a thumbnail and a not-so-hi-tech folded sweet wrapper.

06/12/12 The joule thief flasher!Adding a bit of extra bling to the thing.

04/12/12 The two channel video switcher - updated! Hold on to your trousers folks 'cause I've updated last years video multiplexer circuit..... by adding a switch!

14/05/12 Playstation3 disassembly It's official: My Playstation3 is dead and I won't be buying a new one. My evening entertainment is reduced to a Wii, a Kindle and jacking-off.

30/03/12 Automated browser of fish webcam sexinessEven when I'm on the other side of the world in a time zone eight hours behind the UK, I know that come Monday morning the contents of my aquarium will be displayed on a monitor in an office 14km from my fish tank. And there's not a damn thing my workmates can do about it. Unless they unplug it.

16/03/12 Optimising scanned PDF's for the KindleWhen things that should just work just don't.

10/03/12 The aquarium webcamWho says webcams are just for naked desperate middle aged men to play chatroulette with? I also use mine as a camping accessory.

11/02/12 The rotating mirror light effectTicks both the daft *and* pointless boxes but it just had to be done.

11/11/11 Qualcast Quadtrack 30 lawnmower motor/belt/knife replacementWhen I told my wife to tidy up her front lawn, I didn't expect her to go out and get a brazilian! Yip yip! Seriously though folks, lawnmower repair is no laughing matter as this entirely humourless disassembly and repair guide proves.

11/09/11 The two channel video switcherAs it's probably not legal to throw a bucket of cold piss over the canvassers that appear on my doorstep from time to time, the next best thing is to ignore 'em and keep my arsecheeks firmly planted on my comfy sofa. I've installed two CCTV cameras in order to determine if the person rapping at my woodwork is friend or foe, however that creates the issue of how to squeeze both video signals down the same wire and into a single input on my TV...

30/06/11 Playstation 3 hard drive upgradeWhen hordes of zombie undead can no longer be squeezed into a 40GB body bag.

28/04/11 The Joule Thief!Ever wondered how your garden solar light just about manages to stay illuminated all night? Of course you haven't. Luckily for you, I have a surprising answer right here involving a dead CFL bulb, a dollop of magnetic flux and spoonful of induction!

24/04/11 The aquarium temperature monitorOkay, hands up all those who want to see a 5000 word essay on the circuit I designed to monitor the temperature in my fish tank! Anyone...??

29/12/10 Playstation2 disassemblyI can't believe I've had the thing for ten years without pulling it apart before now.

13/07/10 The Palm Pre headphone jack repairOh my *GIDDY* aunt, the earpiece speaker of my Palm Pre has jolly well packed in. Well I tell you now, I'm not spending *my* evening getting the screwdrivers out on it, I'm sending the little frigger straight back to O2 and.... aw sod it, who am I trying to kid??

28/02/10 The in-car USB chargerInstead of getting out more, meeting people and having sex, I've installed a USB socket into my Volvo.